Before we get to that, a couple of things! First, I created a Flipboard magazine recently where I intend to collect all the stories I favorite each month. It’s the same list you’ll see here, so it’s basically another way to see the same info. With a Flipboard magazine you’ll get an update every time I add a new story and won’t have to wait for the end of the month. Plus, the stories will just show up in your regular Flipboard, no need to do anything extra. To subscribe, search for “ktempest” in Flipboard. The magazine is called Fantastic Flippin’ Fiction.

I mentioned in January’s post that I was looking for a venue where I could discuss short stories in depth. Not just the ones I like, but any one worth discussing, including stories I don’t like. To that end, I’m doing some experimenting. I created a Google+ community. I intend for it to be a participatory thing, not just me. Anyone can post links to stories, start a discussion, or make recommendations. If you have a Google account, you can join.

Terrain by Genevieve Valentine
All the classic elements of the good Western are here, inflected with steampunk gadgetry as well as characters you would have found in the real west but aren’t usually the protagonists of the media about the time period.

Blood Amber by Keyan Bowes
A folk tale-ish story that had me imagining how much I’d love to sail away on a magical boat that provided me with food every day. The ending doesn’t quite stick its landing. The overall story holds together, though.

A to Z Theory by Toh EnJoe
There are so many ways to make fun of academia, and I’m sure anyone who’s had to deal with journal articles and competing theorems and dramas around such will appreciate this story. However, there’s another group of folks who will as well and i can’t say why without a spoiler. It’s twistier than it seem, trust me.

Armistice Day by Marissa Lingen
While reading this, I kept getting the feeling that the creatures in the story were inspired by the house elves of Harry Potter. No idea if that’s true. Politics and revolution.

A Family for Drakes by Margaret Ronald
Though this feels like a setup for a novel starring Netta and Vigil, I have no problem with that. I’d like to see their further adventures given how well crafted their characters are in this piece. Good mix of adventure, mystery, and young girl kicking ass.

The Rescue by Margrét Helgadóttir
I find it hard to pin down why I like this story as it’s complex, and there are several elements that engaged me on different levels. Characters dealing with solitude and duty, the devastation of discovering the world isn’t the way you’ve been taught, the struggle with self-doubt.

Built in a Day by Anna Caro
I’m not sure I completely grokked this story entirely. I just like the way it spiraled through my brain and made me think and ponder and try to work it out.

Eternal Return by Rodolfo Martínez
Even “minor” superpowers have their uses. Fun story of discovery that combines elements of the Groundhog’s Day theme — living a moment over and over until you get it right. From the page: “Eternal Return” was published in Spanish in Porciones individuales (February 2013, Sportula). This is its first publication in English.

PauseTime by Mary Soon Lee
I like that this story deals with issues you don’t often see in science fiction, like child rearing and single parenthood and how difficult it can be to raise a baby and get work done. Also the cruelty of bougie parents who value men over women. This is a story about a society that values men over women and children in a general, and it’s so harmful. Excellent commentary on our own society’s attitudes towards both.

The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal
This story snuck up on me. I enjoy the alternate history-ness of it as well as the idea of a woman being the poster girl astronaut because the government needed to convince housewives that space travel is safe.

My Voice is in My Sword by Kate Elliott
Another from the Shakespeare issue. There is so much excellence in this story. It’s for everyone who has ever loved the Scottish play and everyone who has ever had to put up with an insufferable jerk for no good reason and everyone who appreciates just desserts. I love the aliens, not only for their small role in the plot, but for how very alien they are.

Early Retirement By Kris Herndon
Herndon is trying to do a lot of things with this story, and it works for the most part but doesn’t *quite* get there in the end. However, I have it on this list because, for all the reaching and falling short, the story did engage me with the main character and the setup of the world. Superheroes as corporate drones, executives pondering the nature of power and the drawbacks of such. It’s a nice blend of mundane and fantastic. (The ending I could do without.)

Gravity by Erzebet YellowBoy
The hook for me is the relationship between the mother and daughter here, though that’s only one aspect of the story that I liked. A small group of people sent on a mission to the sun, hailed as heroes who will save an entire planet. You’d think a story of triumph, right? Nope. The way Yellowboy explores what goes on with these characters is both familiar and fresh.

The Wanderers by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
The SFnal furniture the author plays with here is the stuff of (what could be) tired old tropes by now. Post-apocalypse, first contact, evil aliens. This story remixes those concepts in a way that’s both fun and also makes the tropes feel fresher, in a way. Punk aliens, even if they are into splatterpunk, rock.

First favorite fiction post of 2013 and there is a lot to talk about besides the fic I liked! I’ll begin with business.

First, I am posting a short list of favorite fic every month over at io9 now. Click here to see January’s picks. Each month I’ll choose my top favorites, usually 5 or so, to list there. I’ll also do more with print/subscription/non-free fiction there and podcasts. That list won’t mean that these lists will go away, though. There are shorts listed here that aren’t listed there.

Second, I’m now part of the Not If You Were The Last Short Story On Earth crew, so I will contribute to the Twitter account and possibly the podcast (I’m not in Australia or anything, so I have no clue how that works). So if you want to keep up with the stories I like as I read them, follow that account. I’m not the only one who tweets, so you get bonus thoughts from other folks doing the same thing I am.

Last, ever since I started reading short fic regularly I’ve wanted to have a place where I could go to have discussions about the stories. Not just the stories I like, but the ones I don’t that I still find interesting enough to discuss. Last time I brought this up on Twitter many were interested, so I’m bringing it up again. The thing I’m unsure about is where to host this discussion. G+ communities are now live and could work. DreamWidth communities might be better since it can be a little bit (but not totally) private. I’m just worried about people who may want to join the discussion feeling like they can’t unless they join DreamWidth. Maybe that’s an unfounded concern. Anyway, I would love to hear suggestions on this.

Okay, all that taken care of, it’s now time for the favorites list!

The Advocate by Genevieve Valentine
Politics, bureaucracy, government ineptitude, the ambitions of petty little men. Too often stories with these elements end up being just as banal and annoying as dealing with them in real life. Here you get a reverse effect. The politicking leads to the result it usually does: something or someone is in danger. Valentine has a way of quietly and sneakily engaging you so that the reader is invested in the outcome as much as any of the characters, mainly because most of us know too well that these things rarely turn out well in real life.

Eleutherios by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
This one is a freebie from Baen and takes place in the Liaden Universe. I wasn’t aware of any of this when I read the story and I’m not at all familiar with the work of Lee and Miller. I say this to point out that the story works well on its own with no need for prior knowledge of the world. The story hooked me with the early description of a damaged organ cared for by a monk who longs to hear it played again. The Abbey he resides in also serves as a detention center of sorts for criminals awaiting trial. The story takes its time weaving together the prisoner’s story with the fate of the monk and the organ, but the payoff is well worth it. A quiet but satisfying story.

Daltharee by Jeffrey Ford [reprint]
What starts out as a simple story about growing a city in a bottle takes a philosophical, then a dark turn. As you’d expect from Ford, this all flows smoothly and it’s engaging right from the start.

Selkie Stories Are for Losers by Sofia Samatar
Selkie moms are the worst. Human moms can be pretty bad, too. A story about what daughters go through when their moms let them down, and there are many ways in which a mom might let a daughter down. The tone of this piece hovers between snarky, lighthearted, longing, and despairing and balances all of that really well.

Inventory by Carmen Maria Machado
I’m a fan of stories with non-traditional structures, and this one combines that with my love of lists. The protagonists looks back across her life and the things that led to her current state by listing all the people she’s had sexual encounters with in order to stay sane. It’s an interesting lens with which to examine a life.

Goddess By Lavanya KarthikTRIGGER WARNING: abuse and child abuse. In times of scarcity and uncertainty, there are always people ready to take advantage of the fears and desperation of others, especially in spiritual matters. That’s the world Karthik drops us into with this story, thus it’s fitting that it opens with dreams of extreme bloodshed. The story is somewhat jangly and could do with some smoothing of the structure to eliminate confusion in the beginning, but once I got past that the characters and situation ended up being very compelling.

Staying Behind by Ken Liu
In this post-Singularity story, the humans of Earth look on those who’ve decided to upload their consciousness to machines as “the Dead”, which is an interesting way to frame the issue. It’s almost a reverse ancestor worship. I liked the story, but wouldn’t say it’s one of Liu’s best. It’s a bit more straightforward than his really good fiction, but you can tell he’s going for something deeper than what’s on the surface. That reaching doesn’t mar the story in any way.

The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics by Daniel Abraham [reprint]
It’s said that artists often create the best works of art when under some kind of forced restriction. This story proves the point well. originally published in “Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories” where each author had to craft a story around a specific word. The word in question here is Cambist, and Abraham masterfully crafts a story around a word that is unlikely to be found on most modern fiction, even fantasy fiction. And while the structure is that of a fairy tale, it’s by no means slight.

The Patrician by Tansy Rayner Roberts
A monster hunting story with all the usual trappings, but told from the perspective of a woman as she grows from a teenager living an isolated life in a tourist town to a grandmother. I like the scope of this story as well as the viewpoint.

The Message Between The Words by Grayson Bray Morris
This is the type of story where the idea is more powerful than the plot itself, yet somehow it still manages to come together well in the end. The protagonist is also engaging, which helps. Overall, this story kind of tumbles together well even though individual aspects of it don’t quite work.

Trixie and the Pandas of Dread by Eugie Foster
My love for this story is white hot and burning like the sun. Trixie is a goddess of wrath, but she wasn’t born one and still struggles to reconcile her goddess-self with her mortal brain. Oh, and she smites jerks and assholes. And I love her.

The Performance Artist by Lettie Prell
This story admittedly drew me in because I’ve seen my share of performance art, most of it ridiculous and pretentious and not worth my time. A common experience when witnessing PA was the reaction from the audience. People who tried to justify the mess in front of them by assigning it artistic merit or pretending to understand the “meaning” or the artist’s intent. There are reactions you could count on hearing no matter what the art. Prell nails that in this story, and this elements makes the ending more powerful for it.

Now that I’ve finished reading short stories for 2012, it’s time for some lists and statistics! I know, I know, lists can be boring. But not this one. I put together a list of what I consider the best short fiction of 2012. This is culled from my Favorite fiction lists I’ve been doing all year. Keep in mind that this is pretty much limited to free fiction online, so it doesn’t include stories from print mags like F&SF, Asimov’s, and the like.

If you plan on nominating works for awards, I encourage you to consider these. All are eligible for the Hugo, and some are eligible for other awards (I marked the ones I could think of below).

I’ve listed them in chronological order from most recently published backwards.

The Wisdom of Ants by Thoraiya Dyer
Though this story is pure science fiction, it has a fantasy sensibility that I deeply love. Here again is that thing I like to read about: female empowerment mixed in with some coming of age. And comeuppance. I love me some comeuppance.

Good Hunting by Ken Liu
Yet another amazing Ken Liu story. His works aren’t always a home run, but when he’s on he’s really good, and this story is just more evidence of that. There are several layers of complexity here as he folds in colonialism, imperialism, and cultural death while addressing issues of sexism and even rape culture (there are no on-screen rapes, though). Very finely crafted story. [World Fantasy, Carl Brandon Parallax Award & Kindred Award]

Household Management by Ellen Klages
Sherlock Holmes fans who love Mrs. Hudson will love this story. And I’m not just talking people who like BBC Sherlock or the Downey/Law movies or people who’ve read the books and stories. It’s one that works across many of the different Sherlock-infused medium (at least, the ones that include this character. Sorry Elementary fans). short and fun and very on point (and feminist, too).

How to Make a Triffid by Kelly Lagor
Despite not being a huge science geek myself, I love the way this piece entwines hardcore biological science with a richly-told character exploration and doesn’t force me to feel one particular way about the protagonist in the end. Really complex and great.

The King’s Huntsman by Jennifer Mason-Black [novelette]
This is a novelette, so be prepared to settle in for a long read. It’s well worth it, since this story uses the space to develop the main character and the world very well. Though it seems like your standard woman passing as a man in repressive patriarchy for the sake of freedom story, Mason-Black goes beyond that basic trope. I don’t know that it quite reaches the resonance the author was going for in the end, but it comes very close. [World Fantasy]

Said the Princess by Dani Atkinson
DailySF usually doesn’t publish stuff I like, but this one caught me off guard. The quirkiness, mostly, and also the meta aspect. In the end it’s fun without being fluff, and I appreciated what the author did to solve the central problem. [World Fantasy]

The 17th Contest of Body Artistry by Alex Dally MacFarlane
Obviously, I’m a fan of stories that take some format other than a straight up narrative, so this one hits my kink in that arena. Plus, it’s just very good and once again has me thinking about aspects of my own worldbuilding. The things that can be revealed about a culture from such things as an art contest and how people react to it is many and varied. Lovity love.

Breaking the Frame by Kat Howard
There are a million post modern, female centric takes on fairy tales out there, but I particularly like the frame (hahaha) Howard uses for this story. At first I was not down with the cliched relationship at the beginning, then I realized the author was doing that for more than just hipster irony. Highly recommended.

The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species by Ken Liu
“Everyone makes books.” Not only do I just love this story for the glimpses into other worlds and other species, I also love that it made me start thinking about the kind of books exist in the worlds I create in fiction. Oddly, it’s not a question I generally ask myself, though you’d think it would be one of the first things to come to mind. Wouldn’t this make an excellent interview question for any writer? What kind of books do your characters create? [Carl Brandon Parallax Award]

Mantis Wives by Kij Johnson
I’m not entirely sure this is science fiction or fantasy, but it’s certainly speculative. Regardless, Johnson pulled me in with the descriptions of these intricate art pieces.

Fade to White by Catherynne M. Valente
Because I read the first paragraph of this story, got interrupted, then came back later, I didn’t remember that Cat wrote it until I got to the end and went back to read it again. I love, love, loved this and I already suggested it to the Tiptree jury. I really dug the way she played with gender roles and with the commentary on advertising and marketing slyly added in. It’s just a really good story, go read. [Sturgeon Award]

Song Of The Body Cartographer by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
I love this story’s worldbuilding and the characters. Though I felt it wasn’t truly complete the first time I read it, the great elements stuck with me for months. [World Fantasy, Carl Brandon Parallax Award & Kindred Award]

Astrophilia by Carrie Vaughn
Post-apocalyptic stuff usually isn’t my thing, but this story manages to make that trope feel less like window dressing than most other stories I’ve read.

Winter Scheming by Brit Mandelo
[TRIGGER WARNING: Domestic Violence.] What I like best about this story is that it starts out in an unexpected way given what’s really going on (which you understand at the end). Very well structured and executed.

Recognizing Gabe: un cuento de hadas by Alberto Yáñez
This gorgeous folktale-like story is fierce and forthright, which I love. It also doesn’t go for easy sentimentality, which it could have slipped into with a lesser author. Yanez explores gender issues without being preachy or prescriptive. That’s not easy to pull off, but he does. [World Fantasy, Carl Brandon Parallax Award & Kindred Award]

Now as to stats.

There are 19 stories on my best of list, that’s out of 82 favorite stories for 2012. I don’t have an accurate count for how many stories I read in total, sadly, but I know I read a great deal. I can’t claim to have read every story published for free online. A lot of time I stuck to the magazines I know I like the most. But toward the middle of the year I did pick up some new reading and tried to dip into new-to-me markets more often.

Just taking the 19 stories on my Best Of list, it’s clear that I dig Clarkesworld and Lightspeed Magazines the most, since there are 4 stories from each. Next is Strange Horizons, with two stories that made the list. (Also keep in mind that this only represents stories published in 2012 and not reprints from other years).

This pattern pretty much holds when you look at the breakdown of all magazines that made my favorites list this year.

Lightspeed is at the top (again, this is with originals) followed closely by Clarkesworld and Strange Horizons. Apex also has a good showing. After that it drops pretty dramatically. For some magazines, this is because they publish far fewer stories in a year. Eclipse Online is new, so the percentage of stories I’ve liked from the magazine is high, relatively. However, it is telling that DailySF is only on my list once. If you include the reprints I liked (9 total) then Lightspeed gets 22 thumbs up from me for the year.

I would be interested to hear from the editors of these magazines on how many stories they published in 2012 so I can get an idea of what percentage of their offerings I liked.

Of my favorite stories, 60 were written by women and only 19 written by men. Two were written by persons of unknown (to me) gender. There are 18 authors of color on my favorites list. Most of the male authors I like are POC.

The SF/F split continues to be about even. 48 of the stories I liked are science fiction and 51 are fantasy. Only 4 horror stories and 3 I classed as Interstitial (with some overlap with SF/F).

Several authors show up in my favorites more than once: Aliette de Bodard, Rahul Kanakia, Ken Liu. This is partially a testament to how prolific they are, but also does represent my fondness for them. Liu in particular comes to mind whenever someone asks me about favorite authors or for suggestions on what to read. Should also mention here that I’m in Diverse Energies with both Liu and Kanakia — to be in this company makes me very happy. (I also really liked their stories.)

Overall, I’ve enjoyed reading all this short fiction in 2012. It’s definitely inspired me to write more. Plus, I like being able to see the growing expansion of the genre as I discover new gems. I will continue to read as much short fiction as possible in 2013. In fact, I’ll likely read way more.

The crew over at Not If You Were The Last Short Story On Earth asked me to join the blog, and I happily said yes. So more print mags are in my future. I also talked to AnnaLee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders about possibly doing a short fiction roundup for io9. Hopefully that will happen this month.

Welcome to 2013, everyone! Since I was so abominably late with my October favorites I decided to spend my vacation time reading and thus get you my final favorites for 2012 just as we rang in the new year. In a separate post I’ll also put up my top picks for the year. The stories that I would put in a year’s best collection were I in charge of one.

There’s a nice, long list of great stories here with some new names among them.

Relic by Jeffrey Ford
This story sits on the line between SF and F and sticks out it’s tongue at anyone who wants to drag it firmly into one territory or another. It entreats you into the narrative in waves and even when you think you understand where it’s going and what it’s doing, there’s another bend and there’s that tongue again. Very well crafted and evocative.

Labyrinth by Mari Ness
Lovely and crunchy and dark, which is pretty classic Mari Ness. And you’ll hear no complaints from me about it as this story wrapped itself around me right from the start. A labyrinth!

The Wisdom of Ants by Thoraiya Dyer
Though this story is pure science fiction, it has a fantasy sensibility that I deeply love. Here again is that thing I like to read about: female empowerment mixed in with some coming of age. And comeuppance. I love me some comeuppance.

Sprig by Alex Bledsoe
This story is nice and cute and fun and I adored it. I’m more of a sucker for fairies than you’d imagine.

Firebugs by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
I found this story really moving and engaging and I don’t feel like I’ve even plumbed its depths properly. I want to sit down with it again after a few months and read it for fresh insights. As always, Hoffman piles on so many layers and is doing so many different things that it’s possible to read it in various ways and still grok the story. Excellent.

A Well-Adjusted Man by Tom Crosshill
Trigger warning on this for violence and hints of domestic violence. This dystopia isn’t so very far away from where we are now. Not in internal chronology, but culturally. Good read.

Seven Smiles and Seven Frowns by Richard Bowes
I often groan when I see fantasy authors trying to create credible myths and folk tales for their created worlds. Often, they’re bad at it because they don’t understand how mythology works and the purpose of tales told to The People. So, I say to all you fantasy authors out there, if you want to create some myths and tales, read the story first. It’s also just a really good story. (With badass women)

A Game of Rats and Dragon by Tobias S. Buckell
The comment thread in this story was the scene of a rather ridiculous flamewar which I fear may have overshadowed the story itself, which is quite good. I love the idea of people living out their lives in a real time, real life massively multiplayer game. And, of course, in a world like that you’ll have people scraping together a living taking small part in those worlds. I felt that the emotional resonance at the end didn’t satisfy me as much as I would have liked given the world Buckell builds up, but it does prime me for more stories or even a novel with this backdrop, perhaps even with these characters.

Searching for Slave Leia by Sandra McDonald
Even though this kind o story could easy be waved off as geek pandering because of how meta it is, I think McDonald manages to avoid being twee and get to something deeper and more interesting than just fan service.

As the Wheel Turns by Aliette de Bodard
It is not surprising that this story was first published in an anthology called EPIC, because that’s what it is. Cycles of reincarnation and pain plus a woman finding her power. All good stuff.

Good Hunting by Ken Liu
Yet another amazing Ken Liu story. His works aren’t always a home run, but when he’s on he’s really good, and this story is just more evidence of that. There are several layers of complexity here as he folds in colonialism, imperialism, and cultural death while addressing issues of sexism and even rape culture (there are no on-screen rapes, though). Very finely crafted story.

Household Management by Ellen Klages
Sherlock Holmes fans who love Mrs. Hudson will love this story. And I’m not just talking people who like BBC Sherlock or the Downey/Law movies or people who’ve read the books and stories. It’s one that works across many of the different Sherlock-inflused medium (at least, the ones that include this character. Sorry Elementary fans). short and fun and very on point (and feminist, too).

The Memory Eater by Holly Day
This story is very evocative and creepy, but I wish that in the end I understood better what exactly was going on. However, I kept thinking about the story for several days after I read it, which is a good sign.

How to Make a Triffid by Kelly Lagor
Despite not being a huge science geek myself, I love the way this piece entwines hardcore biological science with a richly-told character exploration and doesn’t force me to feel one particular way about the protagonist in the end. Really complex and great.

Heads Will Roll by Lish McBride
I have a dubious history with unicorn stories, but give me something about badass women raining down vengeance on the deserving and you have me hooked. While this reads clearly to me as the backstory to a fabulous novel, I think it resolves itself in a satisfying way. And again: badass women get me almost every time.

America Thief by Alter S. Reiss
A period piece that combines gangsters with magic. I like the moral ambiguity going on here as well as the evocation of the cultures roiling around with each other.

The Hateful Brilliance of His Eyes by Alec Austin
This is a fun story, though it doesn’t come off that way at first. I imagine that there are many buddy tales of Liao Jun and Yan Ming that are equally entertaining in this author’s future (or perhaps they already exist). One of the things I like about it is that even though there’s clearly a history between these two and there are clearly more adventures, this is a complete story in itself that resolves satisfyingly on both a character and plot level. Well done!

Yeah… so October. I realized today that the reason I’m behind on posting this list is that I just haven’t had the energy to write up a little review/summary of why I like these stories. And that continues and continues to be the case. Since we’re deep into December and I haven’t even posted November’s picks yet, I figured I would just toss the list up.

Here’s what I’ll say about them all: I liked each of these stories and loved others. If I had to pick out one that stood out, it’s Said The Princess. That one totally charmed and amused me. I think I was most surprised because Daily Science Fiction rarely publishes anything I like.

This month, the list is rather long. This explains my lateness in putting up this post (sort of… I’m also lazy!). I discovered a cache of new magazines this month, thus adding greatly to the number of stories I read and liked.

Several weeks ago I lamented about the fact that there weren’t many markets for long stories such as novellas and novelettes. As a result, people kept suggesting markets to me. I was reminded that Electric Velocipede takes longer stuff, and introduced to GigaNotoSaurus and The Red Penny Papers, which both take novelettes. I’ll put up a post later this week with a longer list.

As always, I welcome any discussion of these stories in the comments. let me know if you liked them or not and why an feel free to tell me I’m wrong and have bad taste! Also, consider dropping a comment where the option is available on the original stories.

Breaking the Frame by Kat Howard
There are a million post modern, female centric takes on fairy tales out there, but I particularly like the frame (hahaha) Howard uses for this story. At first I was not down with the cliched relationship at the beginning, then I realized the author was doing that for more than just hipster irony. Highly recommended.

Cutting by Ken Liu
Stories that require a particular kind of layout can be difficult to do well without seeming gimmicky. No surprise that this is not the case for Ken Liu. Short and amazing.

The Last Supper by Scott Edelman
This is one of the best zombie stories I’ve ever read. I’m not that into zombies, so my view may be skewed. However, I love the POV here and how Edelman is able to bring all this tension and foster engagement with a character that should be really boring and tedious.

muo-ka’s Child by Indrapramit Das
Touching first contact story that takes a different angle than most. Again, I really like stories where the aliens are SO very alien.

The 17th Contest of Body Artistry by Alex Dally MacFarlane
Obviously, I’m a fan of stories that take some format other than a straight up narrative, so this one hits my kink in that arena. Plus, it’s just very good and once again has me thinking about aspects of my own worldbuilding. The things that can be revealed about a culture from such things as an art contest and how people react to it is many and varied. Lovity love.

Night’s Slow Poison by Ann Leckie
A story about a boring 6 month trip through dead space on a small ship might be super boring itself in the hands of a less skilled author. Instead, Leckie nails it.

Garlic Squash by Nicki Vardon
This one is just a lot of fun, especially for those of you tired of people falling in love with sexy vampires. They are not sexy!

On Higher Ground by Annie Bellet
Normally, I don’t care for stories about sports or where the protagonist is super interested in a sport. But, I have to admit that the author’s descriptions of skiing were so beautiful that I almost wanted to go out and learn to ski. People who are fans of high class sports and the ridiculousness corporateness of them will like this.

Je me souviens by Su J. SokolTrigger warning: rape and child abuse. This one got a little rambly in the middle, but really resonated with me in the end. I particularly enjoyed the relationship between the father and son. I also like that it can be read as speculative or not.

Heaven Under Earth by Aliette de Bodard
The story as a whole didn’t do it for me as much as I hoped it would in the beginning and middle bits. I am very much enamored with the worldbuilding and the gender politics at play. Would love to discuss such with other folks who read this.

The Fourth Exam by Dorothy Yarros
Political intrigue! I’m not usually a fan of that, but this pulled me in. Unfortunately, the story feels more like the backstory to a fantastic novel about a political coup and the bureaucrats caught in the middle of the struggle than a standalone. At the end I felt very much like I’d read a prologue.

As I predicted, this is way late thanks to WorldCon. All things can be blamed on WorldCon. The good thing about going was being at the Hugo ceremony to see many deserving writers and artists get their shiny rockets. It’s sort of a coincidence (but not exactly) that many of the Hugo Award winners also have fiction on my list below. A coincidence because I didn’t plan it that way, but not because it’s no surprise that I’d love their stories given their track record.

Last month I also did some novel reading. I finally finished Liar by Justine Larbalestier. If you haven’t read it yet, go now! It’s so good. I also read the last of the Midnighters books by Scott Westerfeld. I put it off a long time because I love the first two so much I didn’t want to be done with those characters.

September is already shaping up to be a great month, especially since there’s a new issue of Electric Velocipede out. Also, did you know they have a Kickstarter? They so do.

Waiting for Beauty By Marie Brennan
So, this story. It’s fairly short, but even so I saw the ending coming pretty early. I’m not sure how I feel about what it says about Beauty and the Beast, and thus I’m not sure how I feel about the story as a whole. I’d welcome some discussion on it.

The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species by Ken Liu
“Everyone makes books.” Not only do I just love this story for the glimpses into other worlds and other species, I also love that it made me start thinking about the kind of books exist in the worlds I create in fiction. Oddly, it’s not a question I generally ask myself, though you’d think it would be one of the first things to come to mind. Wouldn’t this make an excellent interview question for any writer? What kind of books do your characters create?

Mantis Wives by Kij Johnson
I’m not entirely sure this is science fiction or fantasy, but it’s certainly speculative. Regardless, Johnson pulled me in with the descriptions of these intricate art pieces.

Honey Bear by Sofia Samatar
This story is just sad! I feel like people who desperately want to be parents will appreciate it in particular.

Fade to White by Catherynne M. Valente
Because I read the first paragraph of this story, got interrupted, then came back later, I didn’t remember that Cat wrote it until I got to the end and went back to read it again. I love, love, loved this and I already suggested it to the Tiptree jury. I really dug the way she played with gender roles and with the commentary on advertising and marketing slyly added in. It’s just a really good story, go read.

The Bear with the Quantum Heart by Renee Carter Hall
At first, this story reminded me a lot of the movie A.I., but it did move beyond that. I’m including this on the list less because it’s a favorite story and more because I want to discuss it with people who’ve read it. Would love to read some reactions to the Kayla character.

Sorry I’m so late in posting July’s picks, all. Got caught up in work stuff, as usual. I’m also behind on my August reading. And with Worldcon coming up in a couple of weeks I might be late with my picks after that.

Speaking of WorldCon, one of the reasons I started these lists and keeping track of the stuff I read that I like is that I’m trying to be better about suggesting fiction for awards. Not just the Hugos, but also the Tiptree, Carl Brandon, World Fantasy and Million Writers Awards, to name a few. Remembering favorite short stories is harder for me than remembering favorite novels. Now I have all of the stuff I like cataloged over on Delicious with tags that will help me find appropriate stuff easier.

If anyone would like to join me in tagging and keeping up with loved stuff in this manner, my username on Delicious is ktempest.

And now, the fiction:

One Ear Back by Tina Connolly
People who don’t like cat stories might still like this one. Again, the conclusion of this story is what sold me on it. And again, it would be a spoiler to tell you why.

Song Of The Body Cartographer by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
I initially wasn’t going to put this on my favorites list because, when I got to the end of this I thought: this is half a story! But I decided to include it, anyway, because I like so many other things about it.

Lady Marmalade by E. Catherine Tobler
Not sure I really get this story completely, but I love the imagery and the writing a lot. I like the idea of memories, impressions, essence being stored in jars of marmalade.

June was a really good month for fiction! Must be all that summer reading we’re all expected to do. I didn’t get very far in my novel reading this month, but I did start on The Shadowed Sun by N. K. Jemisin, Redshirts by John Scalzi, and continue working through Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed. I also picked up Ancient, Ancient by Kiini Ibura Salaam.

Contact by Eileen Gunn
I love stories where humans encounter aliens that are SO alien. This one is told from the alien’s POV and works really well.

Winter Scheming by Brit Mandelo
[TRIGGER WARNING: Domestic Violence.] What I like best about this story is that it starts out in an unexpected way given what’s really going on (which you understand at the end). Very well structured and executed.

Immersion by Aliette de Bodard
I had trouble with this one at first because one of the POVs was hard to grok, but I liked where the story went in the end.

Mother of All Russiya by Melanie Rawn
I’m not sure about this one. I liked he story in general, but I’m concerned about the characterization of Master Cheng. I’d be interested in discussing it with anyone who read or will read it.

The Inconstant Moon by Alaya Dawn Johnson
If you haven’t read Alaya’s novel “Moonshine” and you’re into vampires or the 1920s or supernatural-inflected historical fiction, go out and get it RIGHT NOW. It’s jazz vampires! If you’ve read “Moonshine” or the sequel “Wicked City” then you’ll like this story, too. It’s a prequel and tells the tale of how the novel’s protagonist, Zephir Hollis, first came to NYC.

I came home from WisCon 36 with a big to-read pile (though these days it’s less of a pile and more of a list on my Nook) and so June’s favorite fiction list may include less short stories and more novels. Also, I don’t think I scooped every new May story into Readability, so I’ll probably a have few more published last month in the next list.

One last thing — I notice that Rahul Kanakia keeps popping up everywhere and I must say I’m super pleased about that. I’ve liked everything I’ve read by him so far. If he’s as prolific as he seems, I will have plenty to catch up on over the next few months.

Tomorrow’s Dictator by Rahul Kanakia
As a person who spends much time going to conferences and networking, I find the setting of this story very funny. Great tale about mind manipulation (the consensual kind).

Alarms by S. L. Gilbow
I dig stories where characters make OCD lists about things. I also just like the way this one flows. The main character is very relate-able, even with the odd sfnal things going on.

The Rugged Track by Liz Argall (podcast)This one made me smile because I know that Liz’s love of roller derby is the reason it exists. Even if you don’t love roller derby, this beautiful story about love and difficult choices and daughters and mothers will totally make you cry.